HYDERABAD: King Khan of Bollywood has won laurels from across the globe but on Monday, here in the city, he was presented with a distinct award, one that turned him emotional and recall his mother. At its sixth convocation held here, Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) conferred Shahrukh Khan and Rekhta Foundation founder and Urdu aficionado Rajiv Saraf with Honoris Causa (Doctor of Letters) for their extraordinary contribution in the promotion of Urdu language and culture. The two were conferred the doctorate by MANUU Chancellor Zafar Sareshwala.
“My mother would have been very happy as I am getting this honour in Hyderabad, her birthplace,” said the fifty-year-old actor who received the honour at the event. Last year, Khan was awarded with a honorary doctorate by the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Sareshwala said, “Shahrukh has been honoured by universities abroad also but never marked his presence at their ceremonies and was handed over those awards later. There could be no better proof of the prestige of our university that he came all the way from Mumbai to receive the honour.”
Thanking the varsity authorities for choosing him for the honour, Shahrukh said, “I don’t know whether I deserve this award or not but getting it makes me very happy. My parents, especially my father, who was very well versed in Urdu and Persian, would have been very happy had they been here to see me receiving this honour. Seeing students like you at this stage of your academic life receiving your degrees makes me feel so proud. I believe that there is nothing more important than education.”
MANUU V-C Mohammad Parvaiz, congratulating the actor, said he was from the same college where Shahrukh’s mother received her education.
In his message to the students, Shahrukh said that at this threshold, they should go ahead and say what they think and do exactly what their heart desires without any hesitation. Grace and childlike innocence are two things which can help us set things right easily and never forget your strictest teachers as they love you the most, he said.
About 2,885 graduates and post-graduates and 276 MPhil and PhD scholars from various disciplines in regular courses have been awarded degrees. Besides, 44,235 graduates and post graduates from distance mode of learning have also been given degrees in absentia.